Wout van Aert has descended from Mount Teide, hoping that three weeks of intense altitude training will give him an advantage right from the start of his spring Classics campaign at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic on Friday, where he will clash with nemeses Mathieu van der Poel, Filippo Ganna and other Classics contenders.
Van der Poel did his spell at altitude in early March at the Syncrosfera hotel in Spain, polished his form at Tirreno-Adriatico and then beat Ganna and Tadej Pogačar to win Milan-San Remo. Van Aert has gone for a more selective and scientific approach. He missed Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo in the hope of finding a higher peak of form for the cobbles, only returning home to Belgium on Wednesday.
